Midtown Movie Car Chase Ends with Car Jumping Curb, Injuring Two

The New York Post
has posted shocking video of a movie car chase being filmed in Times
Square that ended with a car losing control, jumping the curb and
injuring two pedestrians. (Warning: this includes some graphic images):

It’s not clear how tightly the set was controlled at the time. According to the Post,
one of those injured was not associated with the movie, and the car
ended up smashed into the Sbarro at the corner of 47th and Broadway,
which was open for business.

Great. Not only do pedestrians have to fear real maniacs behind the wheel, now we have to fear the fake ones, too.

Did anyone stop to think that staging this on a rain-slicked street might be a bad idea? Heads should roll at City Hall, but I can hear caring Mayor Mike now: “Accidents happen. Get over it.” The problem is that this wasn’t an accident, unless you count it as an accident waiting to happen.

Obama, to his credit, was reportedly “furious” over the idiotic but non-injury-causing Air Force 1-A fly-by stunt last week and has ordered a review. It’ll be interesting to see if Bloomberg musters a comparable reaction to this car-stunt outrage, which actually injured two people and occurred under his watch.

I think what you all missed was that the Ferrari was undoubtedly driven by a HIGH SKILLED, PROFESSIONAL DRIVER and this was the result. Granted he was paid to drive the car in an aggressive and otherwise illegal manner but still.

It’s time for movies to stop glorifying this antisocial and homicidal behavior. I love to drive fast cars as much as the next guy but I’m mature about now and never drive in a way that would out others at risk. Unfortunately not everybody who watches movies like these understands the risks involved. I wonder how many idiots have either killed themselves or innocent bystanders because they “inspired” by the movies?

Also, who the hell would hire Nicholas Cage to do a movie. I never understood why he’s an A list actor (okay maybe A-). He’s the king of the “Balding Mullet” for God’s sake!

James

Is it just me, or did way in which that Ferrari was driven look an awful lot like what you see on any number of NYC streets and parkways? I swear I saw more than one car doing more or less the same thing on the Henry Hudson Parkway this morning.

PS. Last night I heard a loud crash, looked outside, and saw a car smashed head-on into the storefront across the street from me. I was wondering how such a thing could possibly happen; I guess it was probably U-turn plus rain??

He was great in Peggy Sue Got Married–his only good movie that I can think of.

John Deere

In other news . . .

More than 20,000 – 25,000 cyclists rode in the rain along an entirely auto-free route yesterday in New York, for the 32nd year. How does a blog dedicated to reclaiming the streets from the automobile miss (ignore?) that?

King C.

Nick Cage is the second-worst actor of all time.

James

John Deere, how exactly is an event like the Five Boro Bike Tour any more relevant for Streetsblog than, say, bike racing in Central and Prospect Park? All three of these take place under controlled conditions that don’t reflect the reality of bicycles as daily transportation in NYC. The closure of streets for cyclists removes the motorist-cyclist interaction from the picture, and it is this factor that makes riding here so perilous at times. This is why the TA bike tours get attention here and the Five Boro tour and similar events do not. Apples and oranges.

> How does a blog dedicated to reclaiming the streets from the automobile miss (ignore?) that?

It also filled most of coastal Brooklyn with surly cops with nothing to do except yell at pedestrians trying to do such normal activities such as cross the street, go to and from their homes on foot or by bike, go about their lives.

One cop even yelled at me for attempting to bike through the five-boro area without being part of the tour. Seriously!

I live in east river coastal Brooklyn, and the five-boro tour totally hosed my Sunday. Highly annoyed.

I did successfully troll into spittle-mouthed anger a marshal who was yelling at the crowd to “slow down and enjoy themselves, ya ain’t in a rice, ya hear”, by suggesting (in front of police officers) that maybe they’d have a better time if he’d quit yelling at them. The cops lold hard as the dude blew his top. Made up for some of the annoyance.

Liam, I did the aforementioned bike tour once and that was enough. Riding on the FDR and other limited-access roadways was kind of depressing, and the snacks were much worse and much more scanty than the abundant tasty victuals the TA Century offers.

I \v/ NY

when i hear of crashes like this it makes me want to go watch some of this…

oh, and this is the reason why in many other countries they line the streets with bollards. Curbs don’t stop cars. Bollards do.

It’s also cheaper to pave all the way across and just put bollards in for car-free areas. Raised concrete sidewalks are not only more expensive but also completely ineffective.

John Deere

James,
And yet, Streetsblog gave all sorts of coverage to various other closed streets events like Summer Streets, block parties, etc, where there’s no interaction with motorists. Can’t see how these are necessarily more relevant to daily non-motorized transportation.

I work in the business, and I have to say that is a pretty pathetic and unprofessional thing to see. I have shot a number of stunts, and they go wrong, but the only person in danger is the idiot who is being paid to risk his health. I don’t know if the sidewalk was “locked up” or not, (that is the question behind some of the fault) but now you know, when the 20 year old with the walkie talkie, asks you to hang on a minute, you prob should.

Summer is finally here, but livable streets advocates already can’t wait for September to come. The biennial Pro Walk/Pro Bike/Pro Place conference is taking place in Pittsburgh, a city that’s shedding its “Rust Belt” image and emerging as a leader in progressive street design with the help of a new mayor who’s committed to biking, […]

Why is Times Square so crowded? An article in yesterday’s New York Times considered that question, asking real estate brokers if businesses might be shying away from the area due to packed streets and sidewalks. According to a survey cited in the article, 68 percent of Times Square office workers say congestion is the top […]

Yesterday, the city of Chicago rolled out a sweeping new plan for pedestrian safety [PDF]. With some 250 recommendations — including traffic-calming measures like pedestrian islands, chicanes and midblock curb bumpouts — Chicago joins cities like New York and Portland in formalizing a plan to meet targets for reducing pedestrian injuries and deaths. Chicago Department […]

Where advocates in Cleveland fell short, Captain America has triumphed. For decades, many in Cleveland have dreamed of transforming the West Shoreway — a state highway separating the city from its tantalizingly inaccessible waterfront — into a tree-lined boulevard with at-grade intersections, so that residents of nearby neighborhoods could cross the street to Edgewater Park […]

Anyone who does a fair amount of walking to get around will encounter gaps in the pedestrian network sooner or later. Sometimes they might just be minor annoyances, but they can also put people in very dangerous positions. Clark Parker at Streets.mn stumbled into a pedestrian gap when he tried to send a letter on a Saturday afternoon. The only post office open […]